Duergar samurai?

[Grond]

Hello,

I played Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Ravencroft back in my younger days and now I'm trying out Pathfinder for the first time. I know I can't recreate my beloved Stormlord of Talos class in Pathfinder so I wanted to try for something different.

I usually play at least one grey dwarf character for flavor and as I was looking through the Ultimate Combat book the idea hit me that I've never seen a samurai be played by any race other than human.

Is it allowable to ply a Duergar samurai? I don't see any restrictions that say otherwise but I wanted to ask here before I tried to make the character. I would like to use a 2h katana style for my samurai and would appreciate any tips on feats and choices.

I never cared about making overpowered god mode character just things that are fun and had a distinct flavor to them. And something tells me a bitter gray dwarf ronin samurai wandering the Inner Seas sounds like a flavor I'd love to try.

[blackbloodtroll]

It's allowable.

Are you looking for Samurai feel, or Samurai class?

Are you looking to be evil, or good?

[Grond]

I'm talking the actual Samurai class. I want him to be chaotic good. I have him as a ronin because cultists from the Inner Sea murdered the samurai that taught him and was his mentor and he has chased them back to the Inner Sea region where he will run into the group I plan on playing with.

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

Is this intended for PFS, or for a home game?

[Grond]

My wife and I are joining an existing pathfinder group of friends. I have a friend that does PF groups so I think you are asking if it "official" or not and I do not think it is. I know from my friend that has done this before that you can only use tieflings and the half angel races from the advanced race guide for pathfinder society play.

[Grond]

So back to my original question: any advice on feats and skills?

[Grond]

So no one has any advice or suggestions for a first time Pathfinder player trying to make a duergar samurai?

[blackbloodtroll]

I was going to suggest an Inquisitor of Shizuru.

Duergar make incredible Inquisitors, and the flavor of Samurai is right there.

Duergar in Golarion are basically communists, living in crime-free societies, where everything is built for function, over form, by their hands, and the hands of slaves, and endless toil is their literal god.

[Grond]

I just have to ask why you wouldn't make a Duergar Samurai? The Samurai is its own class and it is specifically the race and class combo I want to make. Why make an inquisitor when I can make an actual samurai?

[GeneticDrift]

Hi Grond, just build him as a normal samurai. focus on damage and not on your mount. High str, challenge, and improved critical will allow you to destroy things. At low levels your mount will be a powerful character, and will always be helpful.

[blackbloodtroll]

I was under the impression that the concept and flavor were more important than the name of your class.

You could be a Samurai, without the Samurai class.

Sorry that is too much.

Well, do you want to go Mounted, or unmounted?

[Grond]

I know you get a combat mount as samurai but I don't want to focus on mounted combat. I did get the heads up from the guy running our campaign that as long as it is a normal hit dice race and an official class he has no problem with my playing a duergar samurai.

[blackbloodtroll]

Sword Saint archetype replaces the mount.

It's a decent archetype.

[Grond]

Do banners make a big difference in combat?

[blackbloodtroll]

See here.

[Grond]

Thanks for the great link and also appreciate the suggestions so far. Our group is meeting for the first time tonight to roll the characters and talk about the campaign and this definitely helps.